THE TURNING POINT John M, Buchanan
Luke 2:22-35 Broad Street Presbyterian Church

January 3, 1982 Columbus, Ohio

One of the things you must do with a new baby is introduce him or her to grand-

parents or great~grandparents, just as soon as poezible. [It is an encounter which
is full of signig icance and, I have always thought, surprising power. Youug parents
play their role almost instinctively. The infant is brought to the pacriarch or
matriarch, placed in opex arms, and the parents are surprised at the steadiness and
expertise of the old han¢s which know well how to do this job. The great-grandparent
discreetly inspects the infant, jostles and then transfers to the shoulder - better
to feel the length and strength of the little body, then back to cradled arm, safely,
smoothly to pose for the photograph. It's an important moment, As I look at the
photographs now I wonder what: they were thinking, and I conclude that iz was probably
not unlike something an old man once said whan he held in his arms Mary's eight-day
old baby:

"Lord lettest now thy servant depart in peace....

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation..."

I was sutprised in a seminar recently when members of the group weirs askea to
weite down the number of years they expected to live. It was not a particularly
happy thought, but as Dz. Johnson once observed, nothing so concentrates the mind as
the thought of hanging. It did bring some perspective and helpful clarity. Next we
were asked to write down what we hoped to accomplish or experience. Some of the
responses were whimsical, creative, intriguing: some wanted to jump out of airplanes,
climb mountains, write books, see the world. As a serious postscript, almost every-
one included some hope for a feeling that progress had been made, that something had
been accomplished, that the enterprise of living and striving and hoping and working
and loving had added up to something of some value. Almost everyone, in addition to
skydiving, mountain climbing and bock writing included some hope thet peace might be
closer, life more gentle, and the Kingdom of God a little stronger, Tt reminded me,
frankly, of old Simeon holding that baby.

Something of the same dynamic happens every time we baptise a child. There are
a lot of sound theological reasons for the Fresbyterian preference for infant baptism,
celebrated publiciy, in the context of a public worship service. One of the impor-
tant, but unheralded results is that a marvelous and powerful dynamic of relationship
is stimulated. Some deep reservoir of hope is tapped when an infant is held in our
midst and all of us experience something not unlike Simeon:
"Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace..."

It was eight days after the birth. Mary and Joseph were in the Temple with
their new baby as the law prescribed. They were there for the ceremonial purifying
and cleansing required of motaers. They brought Jesus along to present him to God in
a traditional act of sacrifice. The law required a lamb, but if the parents could
not afford that extravagance, a pair of turtle doves was acceptable as a substitute.
That is the setting for tne incident. In the Temple they met Simeon, described as a
righteous and devout man, watching for Israel's consolation. The words he said as he
held the infant Jesus, are among the church's priceless treasures. For something
like 1,500 years they have been repeated daily throughout che Christian worid in the
Nunc Dimittus, the church's evening prayer.

I'm very fond of this brief incident. Nowhere is the Gospel more commonly human
than in the touching encounter between the old man and new baby. When theology be~
comes obtuse, when the church feels trivial, when the Kingdom seens remote, Christian-
ity still has its humanism, its celebration of the strength and beauty of humanity,

~2e

at its core.....I'm fond of it, in addition, becayge “b- eentent ef thts encounter
suggests a method and a place for faith to take root, not in the extraordinary,
flashy, but namely in the common, the everyday, the ordinary, the human.

Simeon was making an important theological suggestion when he saw God's salva-
tion in the infant Jesus. Certainly m one else thought of looking to the son of a
peasant carpenter for Israel's redemption. Messianic expectations were classic,
predictable: the savior would come in the clouds, or at least riding a white war
horse. His purpose, as it was commonly understood, was very simply to restore the
Davidic monarchy to the thzone in jerusalem, In order to do that he would have to
drive out the Romans, That's what the Messiah was for. That was the content of the
most passionate longing, waiting and praying for his appearance, The dedication of
a peasant baby is not, frerkly, the logical place to begin looking.

From the outset, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has shown itself to be in sharp
contrast to common expectations, even the fondest hopes of the religious people. The
birth of Jesus didn't fit the prototype Messianic arrival. Jesus the man certainly
didnt measure up Dtriteria endorsed by all the important people of society. In fact,
his claim was so incongruous, so bizarre, 80 out of sync, some thought him demented,
others concluded he was dangerous, and all agreed that society would be well served
by his death,

At the beginning Simeon, some shepherds and a few mysterious astrologers could
see God's presence in the ordinary. Tt is the characteristic Christian secret.

Part, also, of what old Simeon saw in the infant in his arms was that nothing
was ever going to be the same again, This infant would precipitate conflict, his
mission would hinge on the always uncomfortable necessity of making difficult de-
cisions, "Set for the rise and the fall of many" is the way Simeon pus it. And the
dynamic began immediately. Herod reacted vigorously, cruelly, by ordering the execu-
tion of all the new babies in the area. In order to avoid conflict and suffering,
the Maci had to return to their homes by another route. Jesus, contrary to what the
cultural celebration of his birth seems to say about him, is not all sweetness and
light. T.S, Eliot, in his marvelous poem, The Journey of the Magi, has one of them
reflecting on how it was after they discovered the infant...

"We returned to our places, these kingdoms.,
But no longer at home here, in the

old dispensation,
With an aliea people clutching

their gods..."

In the pleasant aftermath of Christmas, Simeon warns us that Christianity will
be demanding, divisive, controversial: that the nature of the faith is to confront
the individual and the structures of society in a way that simply rules out placid
neutrality and commands a decision.

The Spanish mystic Unamuno said it beautifully:
"May God deny you peace but give you glory."
And Dean William Inge had a clear word for us when he said:
"A generation which wishes for a religion without tears must find it
difficult to adjust to the New Testament"
(The Interpreters Bible, P64, Vol, 8)

What we engage this morning, appropriately - as the New Year begins, is the
early awareness that the birth of this child is a turning point. What we confront

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this morning is the promise that God will confront us: one, in the ordinariness of
life, and two, in ways which will force us to make hard decisions. The popular ex-
pectations of religion will still be expressed in images like the Lord "walking with
me and talking with me and telling me I am his own,'"' just as the first century ai-
lowed its religious hope to degenerate ina inythical vision of the Messiah descend-
ing in the clouds. Popular religion will still clamor about ecstatic experiences of
the Holy Spirit, in the same way that the Zealots waited for and expected the un-~
mistakably powerful Christ to arrive on a war horse and organize the revolution.
Popular religion is still suggesting that Jesus Christ confronts people for the sake
of their good feelings of salvation, or spiritual excitement, But what we engage
this morning is the promise that God choses the ordinary, and that to be part of the
confrontation is to be required to make a decision.

May I suggest the wayc it hanpens. It can be in the form of an ethical quandary.
This life of ours is complex. We must confront moral challenges which no one before
us has had to confront. We are faced with ineredible ambiguity in medical ethics,
for instance, in the availability of abortion, We are forced today to face the hard
fact of economic reality, while at the same time dealing responsibly with poor
people. Those issues may I suggest, are the form, the shape and the plane for our
confrontation with Jesus Christ.

And sometimes it may be a sense of judgment; the deep knowledge that we have
acted expediently, not faithfully, for instance; that distressing, nagging guilt
when we sell out a bit, Our confrontation with Jesus Christ can be the unaccountable
disease we feel whenever we have not lived up to our potential, Or, it can be a
surprising gesture of love, an unexpected joy, a gracious, serendipitous act of heal-
ing, forgiving, reconciling.

God's love choses the ordinary, God's love takes the ordinary and transforms
it. God's kingdom comes in a new baby, in the conmonme s of life, and when it appears
it requires a decision.

I invite your decision today.....We come to table. We come to affirm that God
can make the common elements of bread and wine into a sacrament of love, We come
together to celebrate his presence, his promise and his demand, We come to the
common table in the certainty that our decision to be faithful, to follow, is all he
needs to make our Lives into something new and strong and good,

Simeon held an infant in his arms and knew that the turning point had come,
What better place for us to be on the first Sunday of this New Year.

AMEN.
O God, we have seen your salvation. We have celebrated it according to our

custom, Now urge us on to a new day of commitment, decisive faith, and effective
service: through Jesus Christ, our Lord, AMEN.